Do you agree or disagree? Have you had any very positive or negative experiences! Have your say!

There is no doubt that cannabis contributes to paranoia, whether it triggers it, I am not sure. However, once you take drugs, including legal ones like alcohol, you are never going to be the same person again, not a worse person, but a different person.

I smoked dope,everyday, for at least ten years, giving up alcohol for three of those years, I also took a variety of other drugs. Although I never did my self any real harm, I have seen friends go by the way, either through death or just destroyed lives.

I still drink Alcohol, not excessively, as I used to. I don't touch illegal drugs at all, not because they are illegal, but because they simply are not worth it.

I have positive cannabis experiences all the time, and I rarely get paranoid. But when I do, you know the one thing I get anxious the most about? Being caught. Which wouldn't be a problem if the government wasn't waging war on a plant.

I guarantee you, as soon as it gets legalised there will be a massive drop in cannabis related paranoia/anxiety issues.

this is not new. the current debate is whether cannabinoids cause paranoia or whether it is already paranoid individuals that are more likely to have cannabis and it is from these we see the problems.

as i understand it when you start taking enough most people will get some sort of 'anomalous experiences' - changes in colour, time, sensations. this is a positive experience in many and people will continue without much issue. however some i have seen these experiences develop into a a distressing experience. i think more often with people who have very heavy use. dance loops - like 'eat, sleep, rave, repeat etc.' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqDcpgeztck. others have told me from nursery rhymes or songs that they go on for hours and people cant stop. these experiences can get more odd - having insects under their skin. these odd sensations can then push into paranoia since lose your sense of reality and the thought patern may become bizarre e.g. the moon is out to get them. normally a temporary effect, and if it lasts it tends to pass after 1-2 days, when they talk to friends they realise it was real and not. this it quite distinct from mental illness.

i dont personally think you can say that cannabis use alone causes schizophrenia. most people who describe first-line symptoms of schizophrenia - third-person auditory hallucinations, delusional perception, persecutory delusions - would have symptoms anyway and only anti-psychotics help them. such thoughts are lasting and firm-held and nothing you say will change them. i think such people tend to have their mental illness triggered by cannabis, perhaps because it is the first drug of choice, but nowadays i think methadone may taken its place. it is an interesting topic though.

(Original post by DiddyDec)
The only part of smoking weed that makes me paranoid is getting caught by the police. And that is purely logical. The is not irrational paranoia brought on by the actual drug, simply the situation.

Unless there's aggravating circumstances you could easily get off with a caution for a first offence. They will confiscate the weed though.

(Original post by Mequa)
Unless there's extenuating circumstances you could easily get off with a caution for a first offence. They will confiscate the weed though.

I am aware of the legal ramifications, however I would rather stay away from the police entirely as I do not trust them, not one little bit. I have never heard "I got stopped by the police, they were really friendly". And these are supposed to be the people protecting you and you can't even trust them.

Back to the point though. In my experience cannabis has not caused any damage to my mind or body, in fact it has improved both mind and body.

(Original post by DiddyDec)
I have never heard "I got stopped by the police, they were really friendly".

In my few dealings with them they rapidly decided I wasn't a troublemaker and were professional. Of course that isn't everyone's experience. If they don't like you, you're in trouble as they are called authorities for a reason - they have the authority, the power.

(Original post by Mequa)
In my few dealings with them they rapidly decided I wasn't a troublemaker and were professional. Of course that isn't everyone's experience. If they don't like you, you're in trouble as they are called authorities for a reason - they have the authority, the power.

I have been stopped multiple times because I am a "suspicious" person. I'm not entirely sure what makes more suspicious than everyone else. They have never been pleasant to deal with in the slightest. I have know friends of mine who have had police helicopters called on them and armed response brought in, for shooting on their own land. All because some trespassers heard gunshots. The police are not to be trusted.

They gave a bunch of paranoid people pure THC and found half of them to be paranoid. Doesn't sound so bad, apparently it's typical of half the population to have experienced paranoid thoughts in the previous month, give it a couple of minutes and they will probably have forgotten all about it.

Yeah I was really paranoid when I first started taking it, to the point I had to leave the room. It was only now and then at the start that would happen when stoned though.

That isn't the problem though, the problem is when you use it long term and you start having mental health problems due to the drug. I was unaware of a family history of mental health problems when I began using it, had I known at the time I'd have never used it as much as I did.

I ended up really paranoid, anxious and depressed. Weed obviously wasn't the sole reason for the latter two, though I do believe I'd have been paranoid without it.

I have become paranoid while high quite a few times (the last couple of times have been bad, haven't smoked since August last year). Both times, however, were in social environments of 10+ people who I didn't know too well. Other times I have smoked and had a sick time with a few close friends. I think with most substances it just varies from person to person. Personally I'm a bit of a paranoid person and high potent strains don't agree with me. You just need to pick and choose what's right for you and be sensible about it.

The guardian makes it appear to be a weak study, unless I'm misreading it.

We recruited 121 volunteers, all of whom had taken cannabis at least once before, and all of whom reported having experienced paranoid thoughts in the previous month (which is typical of half the population).

The results were clear: THC caused paranoid thoughts. Half of those given THC experienced paranoia, compared with 30% of the placebo group

I'm not sure how accurate the statement is that 50% of the population have experienced paranoia in the past month is as I can't find any information on it, and the study itself doesn't mention it, and otherwise seems fairly compelling.

Like others have said, the only main times i have been paranoid are times when i thought i was going to end up getting caught. And the paranoia faded as the cannabis did. Studies have shown cannabis may have affects on people potentially developing psychosis, however that's only if they were already prone to it. I've never known anyone (and i've known a fair share) of people actually mentally affected by cannabis in the long term, although almost all at some point have became paranoid when smoking whilst i was present (obviously to varying degrees, but most were about getting caught, whether it was by the police, the university halls security or their parents).

That study is hardly accurate, there is a 20% difference in paranoia? Considering the sample isn't huge, and the difference isn't huge either, it isn't really conclusive to say that if the sample was re-selected the results could show something completely different. Its actually laughable really they are trying to present that study as some form of evidence, and if that's the "largest ever study" it demonstrates how far the UK is behind almost all other Western countries now when it comes to actually addressing cannabis. Not to mention this study seems to just think cannabis is THC, dismissing all other compounds in cannabis such as cannabidiol (CBD) which many argue REDUCES paranoia and has been used to treat schizophrenics.